# Do you wash your hands before dining at restaurants? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 29, 2020, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-your-hands-before-dining-at-restaurants/847186 "2020-01-29T20:25:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-your-hands-before-dining-at-restaurants/847186/81 "2020-02-01T14:30:25Z")
I do - but. The main reason I do is because I _will_\* need to use the restroom while I am at the restaurant, and after ordering/before the food arrives is generally the most convenient time. I’m not sure what I would do in an alternate universe where I might be able to have a meal at a restaurant without using the restroom. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-your-hands-before-dining-at-restaurants/847186/82 "2020-02-01T20:37:00Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > I do it this way because the interlude between ordering and receiving food is a convenient period of time in which to take care of it; that it also happens to be after handling a menu that 90 other people have handled is a nice bonus. If I wash my hands before ordering, it delays everything. Yes, exactly. You have the time, so why not wash up? And , might as well drain the bladder, just in case. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2020, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-your-hands-before-dining-at-restaurants/847186/83 "2020-02-02T07:23:45Z")
If I’ve gotten groady outside, or feel need for a bio-break (#1 or #2) then yes. Otherwise we’ll often use hand sanitizer before palpating foods at eateries. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2020, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-your-hands-before-dining-at-restaurants/847186/84 "2020-02-03T05:01:22Z")
Usually not, but obviously if I’ve used the restroom, or if I know my hands are dirty because of something I touched. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2020, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-your-hands-before-dining-at-restaurants/847186/85 "2020-02-03T06:14:18Z")
> [@RioRico](#): > > If I’ve gotten groady outside, or feel need for a bio-break (#1 or #2) then yes. Otherwise we’ll often use hand sanitizer before palpating foods at eateries. Blech, that stuff smells nasty. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-your-hands-before-dining-at-restaurants/847186/86 "2020-03-12T13:13:12Z")
Would love to see the poll results if the poll started today. Would have to be wildly different, no? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-your-hands-before-dining-at-restaurants/847186/87 "2020-03-12T13:35:12Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > Would love to see the poll results if the poll started today. Would have to be wildly different, no? While I am indeed washing my hands more than before, I have yet to wash my hands before eating at a restaurant. And I’ve eaten in a restaurant at least once every day for the past week. [I think restaurant bathrooms are generally gross, and I imagine whatever benefit I might get by washing my hands would be offset by the rest of the experience.] ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-your-hands-before-dining-at-restaurants/847186/88 "2020-03-12T14:20:53Z")
I have no desire to enter a public restroom unless it’s necessary. So many of them are dirty and smelly. I usually have a couple handi wipes or Wet Ones in my pocket. I wipe my hands before eating. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-your-hands-before-dining-at-restaurants/847186/89 "2020-03-12T14:22:49Z")
Soon, the question will be did the food preparers wash their habds before handing the food to your Uber Eats driver… and did she wash _her_ hands? ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-your-hands-before-dining-at-restaurants/847186/90 "2020-03-12T14:26:49Z")
My parents made us wash our hands before dinner. We washed our hands before lunch in elementary school. Kindergarten had a bathroom attached. After that I recall soap and rinse basins. I used to work in chemistry labs, so the working assumption was always that my clothes and body were disgusting (despite PPE) unless I’d changed and showered. So hell yes I washed before I ate. And yes I excuse myself and wash my hands before eating at restaurants. Usually after ordering. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-your-hands-before-dining-at-restaurants/847186/91 "2020-03-12T14:35:50Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > My parents made us wash our hands before dinner. We washed our hands before lunch in elementary school. Kindergarten had a bathroom attached. After that I recall soap and rinse basins. > I used to work in chemistry labs, so the working assumption was always that my clothes and body were disgusting (despite PPE) unless I’d changed and showered. So hell yes I washed before I ate. > > And yes I excuse myself and wash my hands before eating at restaurants. Usually after ordering. As the survey results indicate, there are apparently two kinds of people: those that wash their hands before eating and those that don’t. My parents (my father was a pediatrician) never once asked me to wash my hands before a meal. I don’t recall ever doing so at school. I never taught my children to wash their hands before dinner. I thought it was something only TV families did. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-your-hands-before-dining-at-restaurants/847186/92 "2020-03-12T15:59:01Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > As the survey results indicate, there are apparently two kinds of people: those that wash their hands before eating and those that don’t. Yes … there’s very definitely an interpersonal/cultural component. Basically, if the people in your immediate sphere wash hands before eating during your formative years, you probably will adopt the habit. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-your-hands-before-dining-at-restaurants/847186/93 "2020-03-12T16:29:06Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > Yes … there’s very definitely an interpersonal/cultural component. Basically, if the people in your immediate sphere wash hands before eating during your formative years, you probably will adopt the habit. Apparently [the CDC’s recommendations on when to wash your hands (“before eating” is on the list) don’t mean much to folks.](https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/when-how-handwashing.html) A UK survey found that [only 12% of people consistently wash their hands before eating;](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2713388/Only-12-people-eat-washing-hands-despite-germier-park-bench-escalator-rail.html) presumably it’s not much different in the US. I grew up being taught to wash my hands before eating whenever we ate at home, but for some reason that policy didn’t extend to dining out - even at fast-food establishments, where we ate things like burgers and fries with unwashed hands (memory’s a bit hazy; we may have washed hands before leaving home, but even after that we touched who-knows-what while enroute from our home to the restaurant table - doors, service counters, the table itself, etc.). Sometime early in my adult life I realized that if it made sense to wash hands before eating at home (and according to the CDC, it does), then it made sense to wash hands before eating at a restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-your-hands-before-dining-at-restaurants/847186/94 "2020-03-12T20:25:16Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Wash hands, always. Use sanitizer in a pinch if necessary. People that don’t wash their hands after using the bathroom are disgusting. Did you even read the OP? Going to the bathroom wasn’t even mentioned. I selected no; but like most things like this, it isn’t really a yes/no question. Sometimes yes, sometimes no is my answer. It depends on what I was doing prior to eating. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-your-hands-before-dining-at-restaurants/847186/95 "2020-03-12T20:56:57Z")
^ Yeah, what I was doing along with other factors: Does the restaurant have a bathroom? Am I eating fried chicken with my hands or a dish exclusively with knife and fork? Did I drive directly from my house or have I been out all day? Lots of factors to consider. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-your-hands-before-dining-at-restaurants/847186.md?page=4)